.fund

Overview

• .fund is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) proposed under ICANN's New gTLD Program.
• The string denotes the term "fund" and is positioned for use by entities involved in fundraising, finance and resource provision.
• The applicant and registry operator is Donuts (John Castle, LLC).

History

• Application revealed: 13 June 2012 (New gTLD Program application).
• Registry Agreement signed with ICANN: 20 March 2014.
• Delegated to the DNS Root Zone: 23 April 2014.
• Donuts presented the .fund application as part of a larger portfolio strategy; the company noted it had raised more than US$100 million to support its TLD operations.

Usage and Audience

• Target audiences and typical uses described by the applicant include:
  • Organizations seeking or providing capital or other resources.
  • Financial services and products that include the term "fund" (mutual funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds).
  • Fundraising efforts for non-profits, universities, hospitals and other institutions.
  • Micro-lenders, crowdfunding campaigns and similar fundraising initiatives.
• The applicant emphasized broad appeal and inclusive registration for a wide variety of registrants connected to funding activities.

Registration Rules

• Donuts stated a policy of open access: no entity or group has exclusive rights to register second-level names in .fund.
• The registry will not "artificially deny access, on the basis of identity alone (without legal cause)," and intends inclusive registration policies.
• Donuts committed to deploy an extensive array of protections against abuse, including measures aimed at protecting trademark rights and reducing fraud and abuse compared with incumbent TLDs.
• The application discusses a shared-resources operational model and various consumer, rights-holder and abuse-protection mechanisms; specific technical details (minimum/maximum periods, allowed characters) are not provided in the source text.

SEO and Brand Impact

• The applicant positioned .fund as a namespace that:
  • Improves discoverability for fundraising and finance-related activities by signaling intent in the domain name.
  • Expands consumer choice and competition at the top level of the DNS.
  • Serves as a clear brand signal for organizations involved in funding, potentially aiding trust and clarity for intended audiences.
• Donuts also claimed it would operate .fund with enhanced protections to reduce incidents of fraud and abuse, which the registry argues could benefit brand trust within the TLD.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       FUND

organisation: Binky Moon, LLC
address:      c/o Identity Digital Limited
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)

contact:      administrative
name:         Vice President, Engineering
organisation: Identity Digital Limited
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1.425.298.2200
fax-no:       +1.425.671.0020
e-mail:       tldadmin@identity.digital

contact:      technical
name:         Senior Director, DNS Infrastructure Group
organisation: Identity Digital Limited
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1.425.298.2200
fax-no:       +1.425.671.0020
e-mail:       tldtech@identity.digital

nserver:      V0N0.NIC.FUND 2a01:8840:16:0:0:0:0:45 65.22.20.45
nserver:      V0N1.NIC.FUND 2a01:8840:17:0:0:0:0:45 65.22.21.45
nserver:      V0N2.NIC.FUND 2a01:8840:18:0:0:0:0:45 65.22.22.45
nserver:      V0N3.NIC.FUND 161.232.10.45 2a01:8840:f4:0:0:0:0:45
nserver:      V2N0.NIC.FUND 2a01:8840:19:0:0:0:0:45 65.22.23.45
nserver:      V2N1.NIC.FUND 161.232.11.45 2a01:8840:f5:0:0:0:0:45
ds-rdata:     58270 8 2 987cf39f13d83606711047d4d88b8283bd49bed69ba378b2106c7ed6b33d2527

whois:        whois.nic.fund

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: https://www.identity.digital/

created:      2014-04-17
changed:      2023-09-13
source:       IANA